


and if you make me feel in love then I'll blossom for you

by Shadowcrawler



Category: Terminator (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Paint, F/F, First Time, Grace Harper Lives, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Light Angst, Non-Explicit Sex, Painting, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:49:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23270491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcrawler/pseuds/Shadowcrawler
Summary: Dani has an idea to help Grace be more comfortable.
Relationships: Grace Harper/Dani Ramos
Comments: 11
Kudos: 140





	and if you make me feel in love then I'll blossom for you

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact, this was the very first idea I had for a Dark Fate fic (Dani paints flowers on Grace's scars) but it wasn't coming out how I wanted, so I took a break and now here it is. Please join me in imagining tiny Dani sitting and reading in that garden and tiny Grace writing bad love poems. 
> 
> also I feel very bad that Sarah keeps walking in on them. SORRY SARAH. My next fic will let Sarah have some fun too I promise.

Grace is beautiful.

Dani has thought so since that day at the plant - somewhere, in the back of her mind, behind all the primal terror and grief and confusion, some part of her registered that the tall blonde woman moved like she was made to fight. But even when she’s not fighting, when she’s cleaning a gun or sitting and drinking a beer or sleeping, she’s beautiful. Dani finds herself watching Grace, even (especially) when she doesn’t have to. 

Grace, ever the silent observer, asks with a goofy little grin, “What are you staring at? Is there something on my face?”

“No,” Dani says, suddenly flustered. “It’s nothing, I’m just...watching you.”

“What for?” 

“You’re interesting.”

Grace ducks her head and laughs sheepishly. “I’m not that interesting.”

“Yeah, you are.” Dani’s about to say more, but just then Sarah appears and says, “C’mon, Dani, it’s time for a driving lesson.” Dani doesn’t miss the flicker of disappointment on Grace’s face as she leaves the room.

They’ve been crashing in shitty little motels while they regroup. Sarah insists that just because they took care of the Rev-9, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any more Terminators coming. That makes Dani nervous, but whenever Sarah brings it up, Grace steps close to Dani and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder or arm. It helps, having Grace’s warmth there to anchor her despite her lingering fears.

Sarah’s been getting them rooms with two beds, because as she put it with a sardonic little smile, “We’re all friends now, aren’t we?” This is sometimes accompanied with a pointed look at Grace, who only ever answers with a glare, if she acknowledges it at all. Dani would have offered to share with someone anyway, but the first night they do this Sarah grunts “I have a bad back” and dumps all her shit over one of the beds. So, she and Grace share the other. 

At first, Grace sleeps on her back, rigid, like she did when she was recuperating from the fight at the plant. Dani curls on her side and tries to sleep without thinking of the beautiful woman in bed next to her. It’s not easy.

Then the second night, she has a nightmare: a dozen Terminators like the Rev-9, coming to kill not only Papi and Diego, but Sarah and Grace too. She watches them die in countless horrible ways, their screams echoing in her ears, and she’s unable to move from the spot. She jerks awake, crying, and it takes her a moment to realize that Grace is there next to her, asking, “Dani, Dani, what happened?”

She chokes it out, trying to be quiet, trying not to wake Sarah, and Grace murmurs soothing words and wraps her arms around her and, eventually, she drifts back to sleep. When she wakes, Grace is still holding her. 

After that, they always sleep touching each other in some way. Sometimes it’s Grace holding Dani, sometimes Dani holding Grace. Grace has nightmares too, although she won’t tell Dani what they’re about. She just nestles back against Dani and asks her to talk with her until she can sleep again. 

They talk about a lot of things: Dani’s family, what she used to do at her job, her friends, occasionally even something from Grace’s childhood. Grace won’t tell her anything about the future. “Isn’t there anything I need to know?” Dani asks. 

“No,” insists Grace. “We’ve already changed the timeline anyway, who knows what it’ll be like now.”

Dani made a little  _ hm _ noise. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out together then.” 

She can’t see Grace’s face, but she feels her nod. “Yeah.”

\---

It’s not that Dani stops having nightmares; it’s just that sometimes the dreams are...more interesting now.

She’s had sex dreams before, but not for awhile, and never so vividly. The first time it happens she remembers only bits of it when she wakes: strong hands stroking down her body, soft lips kissing her, intense blue eyes meeting hers. It doesn’t  _ help _ that Grace is holding her close, snoring softly, her body enveloping Dani’s. 

So much has changed, in the last couple of weeks. But Grace has been the constant. It seems ridiculous, but Dani has already become used to sleeping next to Grace, to having Grace nearby at all times. She can guess, from the way Grace looks at her, what they are to each other in the future, but she doesn’t want to press her here and now. She knows now that Grace would die for her, and that should be more than enough, shouldn’t it? She decides to put the dream out of her mind. 

Then it happens again.

This time, she jerks awake just before dawn. Her body is hot with the memory of hands and lips from her dream. With Grace lying there next to her, touching her, even innocently in her sleep, it becomes too much, and Dani carefully untangles herself from Grace and goes to shower. Sarah’s bed is empty, but that’s no shock. Sarah doesn’t seem to sleep much.

When she comes out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, she expects Grace to still be asleep, but she’s awake, sitting up and looking a bit lost. “Oh, hi,” Dani says, giving her a sheepish smile. “I...woke up a bit early and decided to shower.”

“Oh.” Grace blinks. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“No.” Dani bites her lip. “It was...nothing.”

“Are you okay?” Grace tilts her head and frowns. “You’re acting weird.”

Dani snorts, trying to seem casual. “I’m fine, Grace.” She goes to grab her clothes out of the bathroom. “Sorry, I should have changed in there but I thought you’d still be asleep.”

“It’s okay.” Grace says. She suddenly looks down at the floor. It’s strange; Dani has quickly grown used to Grace watching her, and now that she isn’t, Dani wonders what’s changed.

“What,” she asks playfully, “you never seen a naked woman before?”

An awkward laugh explodes from Grace’s mouth. “No, I, I have,” she stammers, still not looking at Dani. “I just…” She shakes her head. “Never mind.”

Dani goes over to stand in front of Grace and sets her clothes down on the bed. “What are we? In the future. You told me, but you didn’t say everything. Why not?”

Grace swallows and finally looks at her, eyes as full of emotion as the first time they had this conversation. “We…” She sighs and tries again. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured.”

“Pressured about what?” 

“To...be with me.” Grace looks almost ashamed, and it’s breaking Dani’s heart. “I didn’t want you to think I wouldn’t still protect you if we weren’t...together.”

“Oh.” Dani blinks. “So that’s why you came back to protect me. Because future you and future me...we’re in love?”

“Yes,” Grace says, her bluntness returned. “But please don’t...I don’t want this to change anything. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, Dani.”

Dani laughs. “Grace,” she says, and then, because she can’t think of anything else to say, she leans over to kiss Grace on the lips. 

Grace takes a minute to kiss back, apparently startled, and then she pulls back and gasps, “Dani, if you don’t want to do this then I-”

“Grace,” Dani repeats, her heart racing. “Please.”

And Grace, letting out a feral groan, pulls her close and kisses her again.

Dani hasn’t been kissed in awhile, but she’s a fast learner. She quickly figures out that Grace likes it when she nibbles at her bottom lip, and when she moves to kiss right under her ear. She doesn’t want to push for anything, but soon enough Grace is whispering, “What do you want? Anything, I’ll do whatever you want me to, I-“ and Dani gasps “you, I want you” and she feels Grace gently tug at the towel, asking permission to take it off, even though it’s barely on anyway. Dani tosses it aside and presses herself against Grace, kissing her again. 

She feels Grace moving her onto her back, on the bed, and then Grace is on top of her and Grace’s hands are all over her and Dani’s not even sure what noises she’s making. Grace is touching her reverently, like she’s made of something precious, like nothing matters in the world but making her feel good. She kisses down Dani’s body with an urgency that makes Dani forget everything except Grace’s mouth. 

Dani arches up into her and whimpers when Grace kisses between her legs. “Is this okay?” Grace asks, looking up at her. Her blue eyes are so intense it almost hurts to look at them. “Dani, do you want this?”

“Please!” yelps Dani, and she’s not sure why but she grabs a handful of Grace’s hair and shoves her face back down. Grace groans at that and does something with her tongue that makes Dani shriek. 

Dani loses track of time, until finally, at least two orgasms later, when she feels like she might melt into the bed, Grace looks up at her and pants, “Was that okay?” with a lopsided grin. 

Laughing, Dani says, “You know that was more than okay. Do you-” She pauses, suddenly feeling shy. “We’ve done that before, haven’t we?”

“Yeah,” Grace replies. She’s still grinning, and she moves back up to kiss Dani. “Um, not quite like that, but I liked it.”

“What?” Dani’s eyes go wide and she laughs breathlessly. “Then how do we usually have sex, if not like that?”

“Standing up. It’s usually, uh, there isn’t a lot of personal time. And most people don’t have their own bedrooms. Well, you do, but it’s...it’s complicated.”

“I see.” Dani reaches up to run her fingers along Grace’s cheek. “Give me a minute and I can take care of you too.” She glances up and down Grace’s body. “You didn’t even take off any clothes, that doesn’t seem very fair.”

Grace shakes her head. “I don’t-”

She’s interrupted by the sound of the door lock clicking open. “Fuck!” Grace hisses, rolling off of Dani and throwing the bedsheet over both of them just as Sarah opens the door. 

“Oh, Jesus” is all Sarah says. She’s holding a few bags of groceries and she sets them down on the wobbly table on the other end of the room. “Well,” she says once she turns back to face them, “I see we’ve all had an eventful morning.”

Dani sits up, holding the sheet around herself, and gives Sarah a defiant glare. “We weren’t sure when you’d be back,” she said, which is true.

“Oh, I don’t care that you’re fucking,” Sarah says, too casually. “I just wish you’d left a sock on the doorknob. Wouldn’t want to interrupt your pillow talk.”

“Stop,” Grace says. She’s still close enough that Dani can feel her muscles tensing, like she’s ready for a brawl. “Just give us a few minutes, okay?”

“Whatever.” Sarah goes back toward the door, throwing them a last amused look. “I’ll go take a walk around the motel. Give you two a chance to freshen up.”

Once she’s gone, Grace leans her head against Dani’s shoulder and groans. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “I didn’t want it to go like that.”

“It’s alright,” Dani says, reaching for Grace’s hand. “It was nice. I liked it.” She knows by now that Sarah’s annoyance will pass, like a summer storm. 

“Okay.” Grace kisses her lightly. “I guess you’d better shower again?” 

“Yes.” Dani giggles. “You could come with me?” she asks, a hopeful note sneaking into her voice. “I didn’t get to do anything for you.”

But Grace shakes her head. “No, I’m okay,” she says, and before Dani can object she gets up and goes to look through the groceries Sarah brought back.

Dani, trying not to look too hurt, goes to shower alone.

After that first time, they continue to sleep curled up together, and they have sex a few more times when Sarah’s not around. The second time, Grace doesn’t get undressed, but she lets Dani reach into her pants and get her off that way. “Not right now,” is all she’ll say when Dani tugs at her tank top and asks slyly if she can take it off. So Dani listens. And it’s thrilling, watching this gorgeous woman who can pick her up with ease lose herself in Dani’s touches. 

But she wonders why Grace won’t undress in front of her. Grace is meticulous about it, in fact: she always changes in the bathroom and she never takes Dani up on her offers to shower together. 

She asks about it one night, when she’s feeling bold and Sarah’s snoring almost loud enough to drown her out entirely. They’re face to face, and not quite sleepy yet. “I don’t want to push you for anything,” she says, trying to say it in a way that won’t offend or upset Grace. “But I wonder...why don’t you want me to see you naked?” She reaches out to stroke Grace’s cheek. “I’m sorry if that’s too much.”

Grace sighs and closes her eyes for a second. “No, I’m sorry,” she says. “It’s not you, Dani. I mean, it’s not your fault. I’m not...I’m a soldier  _ and  _ I’m an augment and that means my body’s not exactly…” She trails off and her eyes dart around, like she’s thinking of the right words. “I chose to become an augment and I got most of my scars from protecting people, from protecting  _ you _ , but my body’s pretty fucked up. You deserve better than to look at me like this.”

“What?” Dani blinks. “Grace, what are you talking about? I think you’re beautiful.”

Grace chuckles awkwardly. “You’ve told me that before. I mean, in the future. But it’s different, you…have other options here.”

“Do I? Papi and Diego are gone, and all I have now is you and Sarah.”

That seems to fluster Grace. “You know what I mean.”

“What, dating?” Dani scoffs. “Where am I supposed to meet people when we’re running and hiding all the time? I don’t have my phone, and I’m not going to go to random bars to find people to have sex with. I don’t want other options, Grace,” she adds, her voice shaking slightly as she reaches out to cup Grace’s cheek in her hand. “I want  _ you _ .”

Grace closes her eyes and leans into her touch for a second. Then she sighs. “I want you too. But I don’t want you to feel like you  _ have _ to want me.”

“Grace,” Dani sighs. “I don’t feel like that at all. I’m the one who came onto  _ you _ , remember?” She smirks. “You were the one that was going to be noble and resist me.”

That makes Grace laugh, though it’s a little shaky. “It’s hard to resist you,” she says with an awkward shrug. “If you’re sure you won’t be disappointed...I could let you see me.”

Dani kisses her cheek. “You could never disappoint me,” she murmurs, running a hand through Grace’s hair. “And I have an idea about that, too.”

\---

“You can tell me to stop whenever you want,” Dani says, setting the cup of water on the nightstand. “I want this to be nice for you, okay?”

“Yeah.” Grace is sprawled out on the bed, still dressed for the time being. “I think it’ll be alright. I trust you.”

“Just tell me to stop and I’ll stop,” Dani repeats firmly. She leans over to give Grace a soft kiss, then goes to get the box of paints. “You ready?”

Grace nods. “You can take off my shirt,” she says, voice shaking a little.

Dani puts the paints next to the water and then climbs up next to her. “Thank you,” she says softly, pulling Grace’s tank top up and over her head slowly. “For trusting me.”

“Always,” Grace whispers. “I trust you more than anyone, Dani.”

Grace isn’t wearing a bra, which surprises Dani a little. “Oh, Grace,” she murmurs, gently tracing her finger over Grace’s collarbones, then moving down to brush her hands over her breasts and abs. “You are so beautiful.”

At that, Grace lets out a little whine. “I…”

“Ssh.” Dani leans down to press kisses to the faint augment scar lines that go across Grace’s chest and down her arms. “Don’t argue with me, okay?” She kisses the large scar on Grace’s belly, then a smaller one an inch or so under her right breast. She runs her hands gently over Grace’s skin and finds another on her hip, which she also kisses. “Is this alright? Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah.” Grace sighs. “Yeah, this is...it’s nice.”

“Will you tell me how you got all of these sometime?” Dani asks, gently brushing her fingers over the scars on Grace’s arms from when she fought the Rev-9. “Well, not these, I know about these. But the others, the ones I don’t know.”

That makes Grace laugh a little. “Future you knows about all my scars,” she says sheepishly. “Never thought I’d have to tell you about them.”

“You don’t have to,” Dani says with a laugh. “You can keep them a secret if you want.”

“No,” Grace says, sounding serious. “No secrets from you. I’ll tell you sometime, I promise.”

“Okay.” Dani moves up to kiss her on the lips again. “You want your pants to stay on, or no?”

“Is that okay?” Grace furrows her brow. “I just...let’s see how it goes like this.”

“Whatever you want,” Dani says. She strokes Grace’s cheek with a finger before sitting up and reaching for the pink paint and paintbrush. “I’m doing a dahlia first,” she says, dipping the brush first into the water and then starting to paint over Grace’s biggest scar. “They’re Mexico’s national flower. My mamá used to buy them to make the house brighter, and then I kept doing it after she died.”

Grace smiles. “You’ve told me about her before, a little. Not that, but other things.”

“Oh?” Dani tries to get the petals as pointed as she can. So far it’s not a perfect likeness, but that’s not really the point of this anyway.

“Sometimes you’d talk about this beautiful greenhouse she’d take you and Diego to, that was near a library,” Grace says, closing her eyes as Dani keeps painting. “”I can’t remember the name of it but it always made you happy to talk about.”

Dani smiles. “That’s at the Biblioteca Vasconcelos. That was my favorite place. Not Diego’s, he preferred places where there was live music or places to play, but I liked just looking at all the plants or sitting in the sun and reading. We stopped going after Mamá died, but I always thought I’d go back someday.”

Grace opens one eye. “Maybe we can,” she says. “It sounds really nice.”

“I think Sarah might have something to say about that,” Dani says with a little laugh. She takes a minute to finish the last few petals and then nods at it. “There.”

Carefully, Grace sits up just enough to see the bright pink flower. “Huh,” she says, blinking at it. “I’ve never really liked pink, but I like that.”

“Good,” Dani says, beaming. She washes her paintbrush off and then grabs the red paint. “Now I’m going to do a flor de Nochebuena over here.” She taps the scar under Grace’s breast. “Poinsetta, I think? They are supposed to be for Christmas but it’s not like anyone will see besides us.”

“Nope,” Grace says with a chuckle. “Just you and me.”

“Still feeling alright?” Dani asks, unable to stop herself from pressing a quick kiss to the top of Grace’s breast before starting to paint.

Grace nods. “In the future it’s...we don’t have a lot of time like this together, downtime. If we’re naked it’s usually in the shower or at night. But we had to be ready in case someone needed you at any moment, so that wasn’t very often.”

“I see.” Dani pauses to think about that. It makes sense, since she’s the one trying to hold everyone together in the future, but it sounds sort of sad too. “Well, I’m glad we get to have that now.” 

She’s quiet as she carefully outlines and then fills in the red petals. “All done,” she says finally, grinning and scooting back so Grace can lean down and see. 

It’s trickier, but Grace finally manages to get the right angle and smiles at it. “How do you remember what all these flowers look like?” 

Dani shrugs. “I guess I just like them, so I bought them a lot and I remember them. I used to draw them sometimes as a kid.”

“Wow. If you told me to draw a flower, it would look like a toddler drew it.” Grace laughs. “I wasn’t ever good at art.”

Scoffing, Dani replies, “It’s hard to think of you not being good at anything.”

“No, really!” Grace grins at her. “Stick figures are all I’m good at.”

“Okay, so what  _ were _ you good at? Before?”

Grace thinks for a bit, then shrugs slightly. “I liked writing, I guess. I read a lot of fantasy as a kid and I tried writing one myself. It was really bad. But I liked stories about knights and dragons and shit, they were just...really cool.”

“Of course.” Dani grins mischievously at her. “Did you pretend to be a knight when you were little? And rescue a princess?” 

Grace looks sheepish. “Not  _ that _ often.” 

“I’m probably not the princess you were expecting, hm?” teases Dani.

“What?” Grace is too startled to respond for a second. “I mean, no, but you’re...you’re better.”

That makes Dani duck her head, a little embarrassed. “Well, thank you.” She grabs the purple paint. “This is a little brighter than jacarandas usually are, but I think they will look nice across these.” She traces her finger slowly over Grace’s augment scars. “They come in springtime. Some people think they’re annoying, but I love them.”

“Are there any flowers you don’t love?”

“I like cempasuchiles, marigolds, but I won’t paint them on you today because they are mostly for Día de Muertos. It would feel like tempting fate.” Dani winks at Grace.

“Well we can’t do that.” Grace adjusts her arm to give Dani better access. “I used to write poetry too,” she adds suddenly. “Before...everything. I was just a kid so I’m sure it sucked.”

“Really?” Dani can picture it: young Grace curled up in bed with a notebook, writing furiously. “What did you write about?”

“God, I don’t know.” Grace ducks her head. “Stupid preteen angst, I guess. And there was...this one girl.”

“That’s so cute! Did you write some for her?”

“I tried. I’m sure they sucked. Her name was Carly and her eyebrows didn’t match her hair, they were darker. I was kind of an awkward weirdo but she was always nice to me, inviting me to sit with her at lunch and stuff. She invited all the girls in class to her birthday party and I bought her a stuffed dog, even though we were like twelve. I wrote one poem about how I saw her walking her dog one at the park and her hair looked like it was made of sunlight.”

“So you’ve always been a romantic.” Dani pauses to kiss her. “Maybe you could write me some, hm?”

She’s kidding, but Grace tilts her head like she’s thinking about it. “Did you not hear the part where I said it sucked? Anyway, I...I wouldn’t even know where to start. You’re…” She swallows. “You’re so beautiful and brave and strong and  _ good _ , Dani. I don’t think words are enough for you.”

Grace is looking at her so earnestly that Dani feels a little shy. “That sounds like poetry to me,” she says, biting her lip and glancing at Grace through her eyelashes. 

It takes her awhile to paint the purple flowers down both of Grace’s arms and across her chest, and then she adds a white orchid on Grace’s hip. “There,” she says finally, sitting back to look at her work. The paint is vibrant against Grace’s skin, and even though a few of them are a little odd-looking she’s pleased with how they look. 

Grace looks down at herself. “This is so cool,” she says, clearly in awe. “I look…”

“Beautiful? I told you.” Dani kisses her, careful to avoid smudging any of the paint. “Let me just get a few pictures, alright?” 

She gets up to retrieve the disposable camera she bought just for this. (“No nudes on my phone,” Sarah had said when she asked if she could use the camera. “Not even artistic ones?” Dani had teased, which made Sarah laugh and roll her eyes.) She takes a lot of pictures - probably too many, but she wants to make sure some of them turn out nice. “Okay,” she says finally. “I think that’s enough. We’d better wash them off before Sarah gets back.”

Grace looks disappointed. “I wish we didn’t have to.”

“Me too, but we’ll have pictures.” Dani sets the camera next to the paints and then gets off the bed, offering a hand to Grace. “Maybe we could do it again sometime? Or you could paint on me?”

Grace laughs at that, grabbing Dani’s hand and getting to her feet. “I told you, I can’t draw anything but stick figures.”

“So? They’ll be beautiful stick figures.” Dani grins up at Grace. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Grace kisses her again. “Thank you.”

“Of course. This was very special, Grace. Thank you for letting me do this for you.” Dani kisses her hand and then tugs her toward the bathroom. “C’mon, I think we can both fit in the shower.”


End file.
